Objective To investigate surgical treatment strategies and analyze clinical outcomes of cardiac tumors. Methods Clinical data of 181 patients with cardiac tumors who underwent surgical treatment in Xinqiao Hospital of Third Military Medical University from January 1980 to December 2010 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 79 malepatients and 102 female patients with their age of 10 months-76 years (45.22±18.21 years) . A total of 179 patients underwent180 tumor resection surgeries under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Two patients with malignant tumors did notreceive surgical resection but exploratory thoracotomy. All the tumor specimens were examined by pathologists. ResultsThere were 169 patients (93.4%) with primary cardiac tumors, including 144 patients (79. 6%) with myxoma, 20 patients (11.0%) with other types of primary benign cardiac tumors, and 5 patients (2.8%) with primary malignant cardiac tumors. There were 12 patients (6.6%) with secondary cardiac tumors. There were 2 perioperative deaths (1.1%) in patients with primary cardiac tumors,including 1 patient with low cardiac output syndrome and another patient with postoperative multipleorgan dysfunction syndrome. All the 5 patients with primary malignant tumors died in postoperative 12 months. Patients with benign cardiac tumors were followed up for 6 months-15 years (2.41±1.08 years) without tumor recurrence. Among patients with secondary cardiac tumors,there was 1 perioperative death because of postoperative multiple organ dysfunction syndrome,2 patients died within postoperative 1 year, and 3 patients died in the 3rd postoperative year during follow-up. Conclusion Myxoma is the most common cardiac tumor. Complete surgical resection is the best treatment strategy forpatients with cardiac tumors. Clinical outcomes of patients with benign cardiac tumors are significantly better than those with malignant cardiac tumors. Prognosis of patients with primary malignant cardiac tumors is poor.